Clemens Seeber

Friedrich Clemens Seeber (born December 16, 1851 in Wurzen ; † July 17, 1905 in Chemnitz ) was a German pioneer and developer of photography and film technology as well as one of the first German reportage photographers from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century . Century . His sphere of activity was Saxony , primarily the region in and around Chemnitz.

Life

Clemens Seeber was born on December 16, 1851 in Wurzen as the son of a porter. His father later worked as a grain broker and insurance agent and moved with his family to the industrial city of Chemnitz in the early 1860s . Seeber first worked in a factory in Chemnitz before he came into contact with photography for the first time in the studio of Arthur Napoleon von Rouvroy and Oscar Bach in Zwingergasse 9. With them he learned the art of the technology, which was still developing at the time, and then opened his first photographic studio at Neugasse No. 5 in Chemnitz, which he had acquired on May 1, 1873 after the death of the photographer August Adolph Hunger. This institution became a well-known address in the city, and later his sonGuido Seeber came into contact with photography and film technology after completing his education as a photographer.

On December 1, 1879, Clemens Seeber opened his photographic institute in downtown Chemnitz in the garden at Theaterstrasse 33 (later renumbered 22) . As the first in his field from Chemnitz, he was producing photographic recordings with electric light with the photographic drying plate, which he introduced. In May 1886 the family of photographers moved to the Villa Am Hopfenberg 1 in Oberwiesa , which from 1888 served as a copy studio and thus a branch. The decisive factors were the very good lighting conditions and the good connection to nearby Chemnitz via the railway line. The studio with an area of ​​63 square meters was particularly suitable for group photos with more than 50 people. Furthermore, in the building laboratories were to be found, as well as enlargement and Retuschierzimmer, also was an increase in investment for bromide paper on site. Juliane Laura Seeber's son Paul Hartmann, who came from his first marriage, worked in this studio as an assistant and took over the branch in Oberwiesa in July 1896.

Seeber dedicated himself to reportage photography and was thus one of the first photo reporters in Germany. With a specially constructed photographic tricycle he took numerous exterior shots with the aid of the photographic drying plate. The bicycle-like vehicle featured a rotating camera. The photographer was therefore also a member of the 1st Chemnitz Bicycle Club. Later he was also one of the first owners of an automobile in the city. Numerous scenes of Chemnitz life, pageants and city views were recorded with it and the pictures have been preserved to this day. Clemens Seeber and his son Guido were also the first photographers in town to show film rolls on September 12, 1897, which were called living photographs . A number of films have been made since the following spring. This was shown to the public since September 16, 1898 as the highlight of the variety performances in the Mosella Hall . These films were later presented on a trip to many other Saxon cities, which helped cinema technology to gain popularity in Saxony.

Furthermore, Clemens and Guido Seeber, together with Oskar Messter, developed a handy travel cinematograph, which they registered with the Imperial Patent Office in 1903 as a registered trademark under the name Seeberograph . After that, a movie theater was later named in the Äußere Johannisstraße . To generate sound images, they combined this device with a gramophone , with which they performed under the name Seeberophon and were thus able to link image and sound. This device was also registered as a trademark in 1905. The photo reporter was last seen on July 15, 1905 in Oberwiesa; he died on July 17, 1905 at the age of 54. He received his grave in Chemnitz.

literature

• Stephan Weingart:  Seeber, Friedrich Clemens. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 133 f. ( Digitized version ).